SYRIA: PFLP dismiss relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian talks at Annapolis

Senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) dismisses the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian talks at a U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis. A senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Maher al-Taher, told a news conference in Damascus on Wednesday (November 28) that his organisation dismissed the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks announced at a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis a day earlier. "The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, following what took place in Annapolis, ensures the following: Firstly, its commitment to the choice of the resistance and the nation, as a a strategic choice imposed by the nature of the conflict with an enemy that refuses peace and denies the Palestinian people their national rights. The commitment to our people and our nation and to resisting the occupiers in every possible way," al-Taher told a news conference. Abbas agreed with U.S. President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at Annapolis to launch immediate talks on creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel with a goal of sealing an accord by the end of next year. "We believe that the U.S administration is not serious with finding a real peace in the region," said al-Taher. "A solution must be based on establishing an independent Palestinian state, the withdrawal from all the territories of 1967 and the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the return of Jerusalem," he added. Abbas, who lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas Islamists in June, holds sway in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and has promised to crack down on militants as part of a 2003 U.S. "road map" peace plan.

ITN Source | November 29, 2007

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